Hi! My name’s Walnie and I’m the newest Island Cat around here! Okay…so I’m not a real cat…I’m a FURmination Creation, made out of Wally and Ernie’s furs after about 5 minutes of being groomed with the FURminator!

Did you know today is National Hairball Awareness Day?!? Well, it is! We’re joining with Romeo the Cat and the FURminator people to celebrate and share information on how to prevent hairballs. And the Island Cats are letting me be the spokescat for them!!

Here’s a familiar site…most of you have yakked up a few of these yourselves, right?? (Humans, don’t look if you get squeamish!)

Pretty gross, huh?? Did you know…

Us cats spend 30% of our lives grooming.

Up to 2/3 of our shed hair can be ingested as we groom.

Hairballs aren’t just a messy inconvenience, but can be a sign of discomfort and can lead to problems like vomiting, constipation or diarrhea, intestinal obstructions and loss of appetite.

And it’s just not long-haired cats that can have hairball problems. Short-haired cats can too. That yucky hairball there? One of Wally’s finer creations.

Now here’s some ways these nasty hairballs can be prevented:

Regular Gooming. Ask your human to groom you regularly by using a grooming tool like the Furminator, which reduces shedding by nearly 90%.

Home Remedies. Ask for a little canned pumpkin mixed in with your stinky goodness once or twice a week. The fiber in the pumpkin can help move those hair clogs through your system.

Stay Hydrated. Make sure you drink lots of water. Water helps flush out the hair before it has time to clump in your stomach.

A New Menu. There are several specially formulated cat foods that help in the fight against hairballs. You might want to ask your human to get you some. But of course, make sure your human asks your v-e-t before changing your diet drastically.

Ask Your V-E-T. If you have a chronic hairball problem, have your human ask your v-e-t to recommend a laxative supplement to help prevent ingested hair from forming balls. This stuff can be pretty tasty!!

I hope these tips help you in your fight against hairballs!!

Uh oh!! I think Wally’s gonna make me his new toy!! I gotta go now!! See ya!

We love Walnie. What a good job that Mom did on that. Lots of great info too about the hairballs. We are going to send the assistant out to get some pumpkin. Glad to see that you are watching the wedding. Take care.

Now that is the second one that I have seen that isn’t “creepy!!” It’s sooooo cute!! Thanks for the tips about hairballs as well….be sure to stop by my blog today and enter a HUGE hair-ball related give-away!!! xoxo

Walnie is very cute! Thanks for all the facts about hairballs. We learned a lot! We’re lucky in that we don’t have a hairball problem here. Or maybe it’s mommy who’s lucky since she doesn’t have to clean them up!

Those are great tips, thanks! We use the furminator on our foster cats and the zoom groom on our own cats. Leo especially seems to shed quite a bit!! We didn’t know about the pumpkin with food and will definitely try that for our foster Leo.
Have a good weekend!
the critters in The Cottage

Walnie, you are soooooo cute!! Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge of the almighty hairball. I am, unfortunately, all too familiar with it!! P.S. We’re doing a fun giveaway on our blog — come by and enter!

ha ha ha snort ha ha ha that is awesome. we had to read it twice because we were laffin so hard. those are great tips. thanks for sharing them! I get hairballs occasionally. I get laxitone 2x a week and that helps “move them thru” the other end.

the best hairball i ever had was Christmas morning 2007. It was a work of art.

Hello Walnie. You kind of resemble Wallie, as seen in the last pic. Mom doesn’t have much luck with the fuminator. Maybe because Cleo and I can’t sit still enough for her to use it. She uses a brush, but we don’t like that either. Mom does have laxatone and buys hairball food, and she says “you better eat it.”

We are stopping by to thank you for your Sympathies, purrs and prayers for Patches, we really appreciated it. We do miss her, especially Mom.

Well, Walnie, you’re pretty cute, and I have to appreciate the good advice. However, I would not want to eliminate furballs altogether, as I enjoy a good yak now and then, and it’s a useful tool in punishing the Human.

My Marley has to take lax on a regular basis. My vet said he was the most well’d
groom cat he has ever seen. Marley loves to be clean. Especially his face. He will not eat tuna with the rest of the cats cause he does not like for it to get on his face.
Hes really pickie about the way he looks.

We likez Walnie ^..^,,, Some good info on hairballz , da mom said she nefur heard about pumpkin… how intersting! Great Tip !….
She needz to find a Furminator……
Thank You for your kind wordz for owr Angelz ^..^
Purrz & Kissez ~ ^..^

Oh Walnie, I didn’t know Wally and Ernie could have furbabies?! You are so cute! Thank you for the information on hairballs. Mummy found it very helpful. We don’t have the hairball problem at the moment but Mummy says that we could do in the future therefore we must plan ahead.